Joint Wigner distribution for spin-1/2 particles

The Wigner distribution has proven to be a useful tool in many quantum problems requiring a joint distribution of position and momentum. In the present paper we develop a joint distribution for spin components within the spirit of the Wigner distribution. This distribution provides an insight into the quantum theory of measurement. We also discuss how one may write joint distributions for two arbitrary noncommuting operators.It is a pleasure to dedicate this paper to Professor John A. Wheeler—physicist, philosopher, poet—an inspiration to us all.Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.     

Stability and instability of nonlinear defect states in the coupled mode equations—Analytical and numerical study

Coupled backward and forward wave amplitudes of an electromagnetic field propagating in a periodic and nonlinear medium at Bragg resonance are governed by the nonlinear coupled mode equations (NLCME). This system of PDEs, similar in structure to the Dirac equations, has gap soliton solutions that travel at any speed between 0 and the speed of light. A recently considered strategy for spatial trapping or capture of gap optical soliton light pulses is based on the appropriate design of localized defects in the periodic structure. Localized defects in the periodic structure give rise to defect modes, which persist as nonlinear defect modes as the amplitude is increased. Soliton trapping is the transfer of incoming soliton energy to nonlinear defect modes. To serve as targets for such energy transfer, nonlinear defect modes must be stable. We therefore investigate the stability of nonlinear defect modes. Resonance among discrete localized modes and radiation modes plays a role in the mechanism for stability and instability, in a manner analogous to the nonlinear Schrödinger/Gross-Pitaevskii (NLS/GP) equation. However, the nature of instabilities and how energy is exchanged among modes is considerably more complicated than for NLS/GP due, in part, to a continuous spectrum of radiation modes which is unbounded above and below. In this paper we (a) establish the instability of branches of nonlinear defect states which, for vanishing amplitude, have a linearization with eigenvalues embedded within the continuous spectrum, (b) numerically compute, using Evans function, the linearized spectrum of nonlinear defect states of an interesting multiparameter family of defects, and (c) perform direct time-dependent numerical simulations in which we observe the exchange of energy among discrete and continuum modes.     

Prediction of yield and long‐term failure of oriented polypropylene: Kinetics and anisotropy

The time‐dependent yield and failure behavior of off‐axis loaded uniaxially oriented polypropylene tape is investigated. The yield and failure behavior is described with an anisotropic viscoplastic model. A viscoplastic flow rule is used with an equivalent stress, based on Hill's anisotropic yield criterion, and the Eyring flow theory combined with a critical equivalent strain definition. This model is based on factorization of the rate and draw ratio dependence and is capable of quantitatively predicting the rate, angle and draw ratio dependence of the yield stress as well as time‐to‐failure in various off‐axis tensile loading conditions characterized solely from the transverse direction. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 2026–2035, 2009     

A new wavelet multigrid method

The standard multigrid procedure performs poorly or may break down when used to solve certain problems, such as elliptic problems with discontinuous or highly oscillatory coefficients. The method discussed in this paper solves this problem by using a wavelet transform and Schur complements to obtain the necessary coarse grid, interpolation, and restriction operators. A factorized sparse approximate inverse is used to improve the efficiency of the resulting method. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the versatility of the method.     

Conditional expectation values in quantum mechanics

The general question of defining the expectation value of an operator for a fixed value of another noncommuting observable is considered and explicit expressions are derived. Due to the noncommutivity of operators a unique definition is not possible, and we consider different possible expressions. Special cases which have previously been considered in the literature are shown to be derivable from the methods presented.In honor of Ilya Prigogine on the occasion of his 70th birthday.     

Single-vendor multi-buyer inventory coordination under private information

This paper considers the problem of coordinating a single-vendor multi-buyer inventory system when there are privacy restrictions in the information required to solve the problem. The objective function and cost parameters of each facility are regarded as private information that no other facilities in the system have access to. Moreover, each facility is responsible to specify its own replenishment policy. The objective is to minimize the total average setup/ordering and inventory-related cost. Solution methodologies under private and global information are developed to find two types of nested power-of-two stationary policies. The first policy assumes all the buyers must replenish simultaneously. The second policy is a more general case where the common replenishment assumption is relaxed. A simple form of information exchange is uncovered that allows the solution methodologies for private and global information yield the same results. The experimental results suggest that the performance of the proposed heuristics is comparable or better than an existing method.